'It's traumatizing': Why are Black male drivers searched at higher rates in Fayetteville?

Though Xzia Edwards has lived in Fayetteville all his life, you won’t find him driving around the city at night.

It’s not because Edwards, 38, fears getting robbed. It’s not because of poor night vision. It’s because he fears getting pulled over by the people charged with protecting him and the roughly 208,000 other residents of Fayetteville.

“As a Black man, it’s traumatizing,” Edwards said recently. “I tell my wife, sometimes I’m afraid to even get in a vehicle with someone else because you never know what’s going to happen. You never know what’s going to happen getting stopped by Fayetteville police.”

Traffic stop data submitted to the State Bureau of Investigation by the Fayetteville Police Department shows that the concerns of Edwards and other Black men in Fayetteville may not be unfounded. From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 of this year, of the 19,915 male drivers stopped by Fayetteville police, 4.87% were searched. An analysis of the data shows that of those 970 men searched, 81.24% were Black, while 15.77% were white, 1.03% were Native American, 1.75% were Asian and 0.21% identified as “Other.”

It's a pattern that first caused concern in October 2010, when Observer columnist Troy Williams evaluated the Fayetteville Police Department’s traffic stop data and found that in 2009, 1,063 Black male drivers were searched, while 273 white male drivers were searched.

"Nevertheless, the statistics leave little doubt whatever the source of this conduct by police, it has a disparate and degrading impact on Blacks in our community," Williams wrote. "When police use pretext stops as a basis to conduct roadside investigations, some criminals will be caught, but far more innocent people will likely be affected by this than the criminals."

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The controversy eventually led in 2012 to a brief moratorium on verbal consent searches, a temporary policy switch to written consent searches and the resignations of City Manager Dale Iman and Fayetteville Police Chief Tom Bergamine.

In February 2021, the Observer revisited the issue, finding that Black drivers were still being stopped and searched at disproportionate rates in Fayetteville.

Two years later, some in Fayetteville say the problem has not only not been resolved, but has worsened.

Councilman Mario Benavente has consistently spoken up about the disparities he sees in the Fayetteville Police Department’s traffic stop data, verbally clashing numerous times with Chief Kemberle “Kem” Braden at City Council meetings.

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Benavente said recently that he is skeptical of Braden’s defense of probable cause for all searches.

“Yes, you do have 100% probable cause, but how convenient that three times, four times out of the time that you could, you’re searching Black drivers,” Benavente said. “It’s not an excuse to say, ‘I had probable cause,’ because the Supreme Court said that if you’ve got an air freshener hanging from your rearview mirror, that’s probable cause to stop you because that’s obstructing your view … That level of discretion that the police have is so large, and it’s just wild that we’re applying that discretion so unevenly.”

What the numbers say

Reports submitted by the Fayetteville Police Department to the SBI show Black men being searched at much higher rates than white men, even though in Fayetteville, U.S. Census Bureau data shows the population is 40.8% white and 42.5% Black.

In September alone, of the 198 male drivers searched by Fayetteville Police Department officers during traffic stops, Black men comprised 85.86% of the searches, while white men comprised 12.63% of the searches, Native American men represented 0.51% of searches and Asian men 1.01%, the data shows.

Comparatively, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office searched five male drivers during traffic stops in September, three of whom were Black and two of whom were white, according to data submitted to the SBI. From Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, deputies searched 18 male drivers during traffic stops, the data shows, with 27.78% of those searched being white, 66.67% being Black and 5.56% being Native American.

During that same period statewide, of the 22,139 male drivers searched, 58.69% were Black, 37.99% were white, 0.41% were Native American, 0.67% were Asian and 2.24% identified as “other,” the data shows.

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According to the SBI traffic stop data, from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, the Fayetteville Police Department stopped 10,349 Black drivers for non-moving violations, 10,573 for moving violations, nine for checkpoints and 623 for “other motor vehicle violations.” During that same period, the department stopped 4,265 white drivers for non-moving violations, 6,555 for moving violations, 21 for checkpoints and 268 for “other motor vehicle violations,” the data shows.

During a second-quarter review presentation to the City Council on Aug. 28, Braden said that 77.4% of searches of Black drivers resulted in “hits,” or illegal contraband being found, while 65.26% of searches of white drivers led to hits. According to the presentation, from Jan. 1 to June 30, drugs were found in 54.8% of searches of Black drivers, while 52.09% of searches of white drivers found drugs. Braden's presentation showed that 22.59% of searches of Black drivers uncovered guns, compared to 13.17% of searches of white drivers.

'Your car is a crime zone'

Frank Baumgartner, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of the 2018 book “Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race,” raised a brow upon hearing of the Fayetteville Police Department's traffic stop data.

“Wow,” Baumgartner said.

Traffic stops provide police officers with a great deal of authority, Baumgartner said.

“The traffic stop always provides a lot of discretion for the officer to do whatever the officer wants to do, and they can almost always find a legal justification to do whatever they want,” he said. “The jury’s gonna believe the police officer. That’s kind of the hard reality of the legal system as it boils down to credibility of the officer versus the person who’s accused of a crime.”

Baumgartner noted that it isn’t difficult to violate something in the traffic code.

“When they invented the traffic code back in the 1930s, they made almost every possible thing be illegal. Your car is a crime zone, basically,” he said. “The traffic code provides the opportunity for the police officer to pull over whomever they want. I think that’s just a fact of life that most people don’t understand because the police use their discretion and they don’t pull over people all the time.”

Baumgartner said that not everyone benefits under that system of discretion.

“I haven’t been pulled over in ... going on 30 years now, because I don’t fit that stereotype profile, being an older white man,” he said. “The police have the authority to pull me over if they want to. They just don’t want to because they don’t find me to be an interesting person to ask questions to because I don’t fit the profile.”

“The criminal profile the police use is a young male of color in a poor neighborhood,” Baumgartner said.

And because those with less income often don’t have the money to keep up with car registration and repairs, they are easier to target in traffic stops initiated for non-moving violations, such as a broken taillight or expired registration, he said.

“When we looked at the search rates when the stop itself had been a moving violation, the search rates were not as different for Blacks and whites,” Baumgartner said. “But when the stop was initiated because of an equipment violation or an expired tag or something like that, it was much more likely to have a racially disparate search rate.

“If you think about the police going into a neighborhood that the police would refer to as a high-crime neighborhood, that’s a poor neighborhood. A lot of people are gonna have old cars with expired tags, and so the police are gonna use that as a legal justification to have those conversations.”

Fayetteville police chief defends data

In an interview this fall, Chief Braden said he does not believe his officers are racially biased.

“At some point, people are going to have to start bringing up some factual-based points that indicate that we are using tactics that are truly biased in how they’re presented,” he said.

Braden said that officers only search cars during stops when they get consent from the driver or have probable cause to do so.

“Probable cause search is where there’s a set of facts and circumstances that are so obvious that the average person would believe that a crime has been, is being or will be committed,” he said. “Reasonable suspicion is pretty much the same definition, but instead of a reasonable person, we put in a sworn police officer.”

The SBI traffic stop data shows that from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, the Fayetteville Police Department conducted 78 consent searches, 1,249 searches based on probable cause, 29 protective frisk searches, 132 searches incident to an arrest and six searches stemming from the service of an outstanding warrant. The data does not break down the race or ethnicity of those searched by the basis for the search.

Braden, who has been with the Fayetteville Police Department since 1996, said he is familiar with the allegations that police are racially biased in traffic stops and searches.

“My administration is not the first one that has gone through this line of questioning,” he said. “Over the past decade, the numbers of traffic stops conducted each year has gone up, gone down — it’s fluctuated throughout. But the numbers reflective of white drivers and Black drivers remain consistently to where there’s more Black drivers that are actually being pulled over and cited.”

What that shows, Braden said, is that the Fayetteville Police Department’s practices have no hidden motive.

“Over four different administrations, no matter whether we did 100,000 traffic stops a year or 20,000 traffic stops a year, the numbers remain consistent,” he said. “It would almost be impossible if there was some grand conspiracy to carry that conspiracy on.”

Furthermore, it is impossible to tell a driver’s race until after they have been pulled over, Braden said. He often asks his companions on ride-alongs to try to do so.

“Guess what? I have yet to have someone say with 100% accuracy that ‘I know this person is Black’ or ‘I know this person is white,’” Braden said. “Why? Because the car is moving too fast, it’s at too great of a distance, and you won’t generally know that information until you get behind the car and have the opportunity to pull it over.”

'They are traumatizing'

For at least one Fayetteville resident, what the chief says does not align with his experiences.

“The Fayetteville Police Department, they are traumatizing,” Edwards said. “Our initial reaction as a Black person is to run.”

Edwards said he estimates that in his lifetime, he has been stopped while in a vehicle by Fayetteville Police Department officers at least 50 times. A request to the Fayetteville Police Department for information on police contacts with Edwards was not fulfilled by press time.

Court records show that at least 10 traffic-related charges from the Fayetteville Police Department against Edwards have been dismissed as of Dec. 5. A citation for failing to wear a seatbelt from the State Highway Patrol was also dismissed on Oct. 24, 2018. Edwards pleaded guilty to charges of failing to notify the DMV of an address change and expired registration on Oct. 5, 2009, and two counts of failing to notify the DMV of an address change on Oct. 24, 2012. All of those charges came from the Fayetteville Police Department, records show.

Edwards was also charged on Sept. 29, 2023, with having unsealed wine or liquor in the passenger area of a motor vehicle, driving with a restricted license and having an expired registration card or tag, court records show. Those charges were pending in Cumberland County District Court as of Dec. 5.

“I feel that they feel as though the majority of African-Americans in Fayetteville are convicted felons,” Edwards said.

He said that the fact that he has a concealed carry permit only worsens the situation, Edwards said.

“I will let them know that I have a concealed weapons permit, and then it goes from that to two more officers, three more officers pull up,” he recounted. “Then it goes from stepping out the car, (and) then they yank my gun off of me and then they take it, take my gun apart. Then they go from bringing the dog out. Then they try this tactic of they smell the odor of something. And then it goes from them searching the car.”

He has not had similar experiences with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, Edwards said.

“They’re more chill,” he said.

Edwards said that he believes that many Fayetteville police officers who are not native to the city make assumptions about residents of different parts of the city, including his neighborhood in the Murchison Road area.

“I can say 99% of the guys here are terrified of the Fayetteville Police Department,” he said.

Christian Mosley, 23, a community activist and podcast host, said he feels the department targets historically Black, low-income neighborhoods.

“You can’t tell me that there’s not heroin or cocaine in King’s Grant or Fairfield Farms,” he said. “You can’t tell me that there’s way more weed in Shaw Road (or) Bonnie Doone than there is over in Haymount.”

Mosley, who has federal law enforcement officers in his family, said he doesn’t believe all police officers are bad, but that the department needs to be aware of what Black community members experience.

“What is this probable cause that you see more with us than you do with anybody else?” he questioned. “Is it dead registrations, because getting your car reregistered now in Cumberland County is insane, at rates that I didn’t see when I first got my license … Is it because it might be a taillight because everybody maybe doesn’t jump on fixing their car properly? Is it because you see a Black person in a particular area or you assume certain things are happening? I don’t know.”

'You don't have to accept these crazy numbers'

Fayetteville residents must look at the Police Department’s traffic stop data and decide whether they are happy with it, Benavente said.

“I think the biggest thing is just to ask whether or not you are satisfied with it,” he said. “You don’t have to accept these crazy numbers. If these stops and these searches are outrageous to you, then it’s outrageous. You don’t have to have anyone explain it to you why it’s OK because it isn’t.”

Baumgartner said that the community must share feedback with city officials and staff.

“The practical realities of this type of thing are that the City Council or the city manager hires the police chief, and you get what you want,” he said. “The police chief at some point has to listen to community feedback from the City Council or the city manager or community activists or community leaders.”

Residents can have an impact, Baumgartner said.

“The police have this authority, and then the question is … as a community, do we want them to use it?” he said. “What if those searches are not leading to the apprehension of dangerous criminals — rather, they’re occasionally leading to the arrest of somebody for illegal possession of a firearm or possession of some marijuana or a small amount of drugs?”

Above all, Edwards said, people should know their rights during a traffic stop.

“Know your rights and know the law,” he said. “There are good cops out there and there are bad cops.”

And if change is to come, the community must ask for it, Benavente said.

“Right now, folks are being placated,” he said. “Start demanding more out of us if that’s what you want.”

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville, NC: Black drivers searched at higher rates than white